Falcons Forum

Monday 9:30PM September 1st, 2025

Avenging last month's 23-8 shellacking, the Falcons took care of weekday night business with a tidy 24-8 win over Hanet Plastics.

Nine-thirty PM brought a bit of a panic to the Falcons, as two players who were supposed to show up were MIA: Handsome Jer, who via the miracle of text-based cellular telecom delivered messaging indicated that he would NOT, in fact, be playing; and Taxman, who had duly and properly signed out of the game on August 25th at 10:24pm but signed back in earlier on game day. Thanks to some digital sleuthing, it was determined that some slippery fingers NOT belonging to Taxman had signed him back in, so no $15 NSO fine was applied.

Down to 8 Falcons, and the prospect of playing with a 3-man outfield, Shohei put on his big-boy pants and trudged up the hill to see if anyone from the previous Triple Play-Greenthumb game would be willing to sack-up for another. Reports are that it took A LOT, and thankfully Poutine wasn't in attendance to keep bringing it up, but Shohei managed to get Greenthumb's John to cover right field for the Falcons. John went above and beyond as a call-up as well, going 4-for-5 with two doubles and 6 RBI. He also hit into a triple play, which is worth discussing.

According to the most googleable records, the infield fly rule was invented fairly recently, so it's understandable that here in 2025, only 130 years after it's creation, that there would still be some confusion in its implementation. Let's see if I can dumb it down for all: if there's a force play at third base and less than two out, any ball hit into the air with even the most remote semblance of an arc is an "infield fly". The batter is out, and the runners on base may advance at their own risk. Easy, right?

Well, you may ask, what about "ordinary effort"? It's right in there: "...if a fair fly ball is in play, and in the umpire's judgment is catchable by an infielder with ordinary effort...". How does one define "ordinary effort" when everyone on the field is really old? Or is really lazy? Or is really bad at baseball? As you can see, there is a lot of latitude granted to the umpire to determine whether a ball, hit by John, with Barry on first and Bill on second with nobody out, reaching an altitude above the relatively newly heightened backstop, about halfway between the pitcher and catcher, was an infield fly. Everything in that previous sentence would seem to indicate to any first-day umpire that it would in fact be an infield fly. Especially if the umpire declares "INFIELD!", then stops, as did the pitcher, the catcher, both runners on base, the batter, the fans, the scorekeepers for both teams, and seemingly time itself.

The catcher snagged the ball on the way up from its initial bounce, and fired to second. Barry is out on the force. Bill, running from second to third for some reason because the play should have been over but was allowed to continue, was out on the tag at third. John, just as confused as anyone except the umpire on the field, walked off. He's out for leaving the field, which is a rule but I doubt that rule was created with this particular scenario in mind. Thus ended a three-up, three-down top of the sixth. Being up by a bunch doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to discuss this calamity and seek clarity.

GAME NOTES: The Falcons' magic number to clinch at least the #4 seed is down to one with the victory... The updated WMSPL Playoff Tournament picture looks like this:

The Crew are President's division champs. $300 to them, congratulations.

Triple Play locked up the #2 seed with their win over Greenthumb. They'll get Hanet and either Surge or Coulas in their playoff pool.

Storm is currently in the driver's seat for the #3 seed, their magic number to clinch is one. The Falcons could snatch it away if they win their last two and Storm loses to [checks notes...] the Expos and Coulas. So yeah, expect Storm at #3.

The Falcons, as previously noted, need only a win or an Expos loss to lock into #4 and a Friday night bye.

And here's where we get into the soup. The Expos sit in an uncomfortable #5, only a half-game up on Broadway, who themselves are only a half-game up on the Isotopes, who are only a half-game up on Glorious Dan and his Inglorious Batters. Those four teams have a combined 13 games remaining, and there's only one game that involves two of those four teams: September 8th's game on K1 between Inglorious Batters and Broadway. So seeds #5-#8 could go anywhere.

Greenthumb is locked in at #9.

Hanet is currently #10, and can't move up. But if Surge, losers of twelve straight and have five games remaining, can string a few wins together, they can move up to #10. Surge could fall to #12, but Hanet can't.

Coulas could move up from #12 as far as #11.

BOXSCORE

BATTING:
2B: John (2), Cowboy
3B: Dunner, Barry Guerrero Jr
HR: Beatty (2)
HR OUTS: None
RBI: Beatty (6), John (6), Shohei (2), Dunner (2), Million Dollar Bill (2), SLF (2), Barry Guerrero Jr (2), Dr J (2)

FIELDING:
DOUBLE PLAYS: Million Dollar Bill-Dr J-Barry Guerrero Jr

PITCHING:
BATTERS FACED: 33

GAME INFORMATION:
STADIUM: K1 FIELD
ATTENDANCE: 4 (20% FULL) - % is based on regular season capacity (Falcons' side only)

Boxscore:

Statistical Highlights